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Euroscepticism: a Mobilising Appeal? Not for Everyone! 1 Politics in Central Europe (ISSN: 1801-3422) Vol

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Euroscepticism: a Mobilising Appeal? Not for Everyone! 1 Politics in Central Europe (ISSN: 1801-3422) Vol Euroscepticism: A Mobilising Appeal? Not for Everyone! 1 Politics in Central Europe (ISSN: 1801-3422) Vol. 11, No. 1 OLGA Gyárfášová DOI: 10.1515/pce-2015-0004 Abstract: This study examines the changing role of the EU agenda in Slovak politics. It identifies old and newly emerging faces of Euroscepticism and compares them with general theoretical concepts. Furthermore, it asks to what extent Eurosceptical appeals mobilised Slovak voters in the European Parliament (EP) elections of 2014 and whether Eurosceptical parties represent a meaningful electoral choice for voters. In the past, many analyses have provided evidence that the European agenda is not salient and the EU political arena is perceived as one where there is less at stake. Nevertheless, the economic crisis and so ‑called Greek bailout were followed by a rise in Euroscepticism and EU ‑criticism. In some EU countries, this enhanced voter mobilisation in the EP elec‑ tions. In others – including Slovakia – we saw not only a significant decline in electoral turnout but relatively poor results for Eurosceptical parties as well. This study identifies the factors behind abstention and explores voting patterns in this specific second‑order election in Slovakia. Moreover, it investigates how the parties are perceived in terms of their positions on EU integration and the potential impact on voter choices. I conclude that the EU agenda is still not the deciding factor for voters even in the case of EP elections. Eurosceptical appeals are less mobilising in this context, and the public sees no differences among parties’ stances on the EU. Keywords: European Parliament elections, Euroscepticism, Eurosceptical appeals, electoral turnout, abstention factors, party and public positions on the EU agenda Introduction ‘This time it’s different!’ announced a major mobilisation campaign by Euro‑ pean Parliament for the 2014 elections. Under “different,” we may understand the changes brought to the EP by the Lisbon Treaty: more competencies, and 1 Work on this paper was supported by research grant APVV 0309-11 for the project Slovak Society in International Comparative Surveys: Before and during the Crises. The author would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive com- ments which greatly contributed to improving the final version of this study. POLITICS IN CENTRAL EUROPE 11 (2015) 1 31 in particular, a closer connection between European voters’ decision and the filling of the position of head of the European executive. The 2014 EP elections were, thus, expected to be more personalised, but also – due to the economic crisis and increased Euroscepticism across the EU – more politicised. The ‘this time it’s different’ slogan seemed to foreshadow greater interest and a higher election turnout. This was confirmed in several member states (Great Britain, Greece, Roma‑ nia and Lithuania) albeit at the price of a rise in support for Eurosceptical and Euro ‑critical parties. In many Central and East European countries, however, the trend in voter participation moved in the opposite direction. With voter turnout at 13%, Slovakia again set a record for non ‑participation, surpassing its own lows in 2004 (17%) and 2009 (19.6%). This “abstention champion” was closely followed by the Czech Republic where participation reached only 18% (five years earlier, it had been 28%), Poland (23%) and the EU family’s new‑ est member, Croatia (25%). Ten years after entering this prestigious club and a quarter century after the fall of undemocratic regimes when a “return to Europe” was a yearned for goal, the majority of citizens in this part of the EU stayed away from the polls. As we have noted, Euroscepticism presented a successful mobilising strategy in this election more than at any time before. The troublesome ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, the consequences of economic crises, the bailout and other incentives related to the urgent state of the euro – all these factors contributed to the eruption of Eurosceptical parties in 2014. In most cases, this was right‑ ‑wing Euroscepticism closely connected to nationalism, xenophobia and anti‑ ‑immigration slogans.2 In journalistic jargon, the EP election results were even labelled a ‘Eurosceptic “earthquake”’ rocking EU elections.3 Yet in some countries including Slovakia, these Eurosceptical appeals did not mobilise voters. Various nationalist and Eurosceptical parties – both old and new – fell well below the 5% threshold and had only very marginal support. The Slovak National Party (SNS), in particular, failed to defend its one seat in the EP, receiving only 3.6% of valid votes. Similarly, the feared right ‑wing extremist 2 To name only the most relevant examples across the EU: the National Front in France won 25% of votes and electoral support for the UKIP grew by 12 percentage points, making it the strongest party in the UK, with almost 27% of votes. The Danish Eurosceptical People’s Party also recorded one of the best election results for a party of this type; with 27% of votes, it doubled its MEP numbers and is now the biggest Danish party in the EP. Within the post­‑Communist countries, Hungary’s extreme­‑right party Jobbik was most successful, receiving 15% of votes. For more details, see http://www.europarl.europa. eu/elections2014-results/en/election­‑results-2014.html (8 July 2015). For the purpose of this study, whose focus is primarily Slovakia, we do not deal with radical left­‑wing Eurosceptical appeals. In the 2014 EP elections, however, it was above all the Greek far­‑left party Syriza which made a breakthrough with 26% of votes. 3 Eurosceptic ‘earthquake’ which rocks EU elections.” BBC New Europe: available at: http://www.bbc.com/ news/world­‑europe-27559714 (26 May 2014). 32 Euroscepticism – a Mobilising Appeal? Not for All! Olga Gyarfášová People’s Party – Our Slovakia (ĽSNS), led by Marián Kotleba (Governor of the Banská Bystrica region), claimed only 1.7% of votes.4 This study examines the changing role of the EU agenda in Slovak politics: it identifies old and newly emerging faces of Euroscepticism and compares them drawing on general theoretical concepts. It also analyses these faces of Slovak Euroscepticism using party manifestos for the 2012 general election and the 2014 EP election. Based on these analyses of the election results and the findings of a post ‑election survey, this work asks to what extent Eurosceptical appeals mobilised Slovak voters in the 2014 EP election and whether Eurosceptical par‑ ties are a meaningful electoral choice for voters. This research also identifies the factors behind abstention and explores voting patterns in this particular second ‑order election in Slovakia. Moreover, it questions how the parties are perceived in terms of their positions on EU integration, the congruence between voter and party perceptions and how all these issues might affect voting choices. How Should We Conceptualise Euroscepticism? The term “Euroscepticism” is notoriously elusive, broad and difficult to concep‑ tualise, let alone to measure. Euroscepticism was initially a distinctly British phenomenon; it expressed British distance and “otherness” in relation to Con‑ tinental Europe and/or the project of EU integration. A more critical European discourse emerged during the debates over the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty in the early 1990 s, and since those years, a variety of forms of Euro‑ scepticism have emerged and started to have increasing prominencein the EU member states. Among the first studies attempting to conceptualise this very complex and fuzzy concept were works by Paul Taggart (1998), Aleks Szczer‑ biak (Taggart and Szczerbiak 2002) and Kopecky and Mudde (2002). As Sofia Vasilopoulou rightly points out: ‘As a result of this implicit exceptionality and novelty of the phenomenon, the literature has mostly treated it [Euroscepticism] as a “dependent” variable. In doing so, it has used the theoretical and analytical tools available in order to “understand” its nature’ (2013: 153). In their formative work (2002), Kopecky and Mudde set out two dimensions to allow for a more precise understanding of parties’ positions vis‑á ‑vis the EU and Europe: 1. diffuse support for European integration at the level of ideas and ideals; 2. specific support for the EU at the level of practice. By combining them, we can classify four theoretical types: Euro‑enthusiasts; Euro‑pragmatists; Euro‑sceptics and Euro‑rejects, where Euro‑sceptics are a combination of EU‑pessimists at the level of EU practice and Europhiles at that of ideas. Even a glance at this typology 4 Among the more marginal nationalistic and Eurosceptical parties, we can include Nation and Justice (which won 1.38% of votes in the election), Law and Justice (1.66%), the Slovak People’s Party (0.46%) and the Christian Slovak National Party (0.64%). All in all, 29 parties and 333 candidates contested the EP election in Slovakia. POLITICS IN CENTRAL EUROPE 11 (2015) 1 33 makes clear that there are many different empirical cases which would not fit into this scheme; still, this typology enables us to begin sorting them out. Taggart and Szczerbiak have distinguished between hard and soft Euroscep‑ ticism (2002), while Chris Flood has identified a six ‑point continuum along which party positions towards the EU may be situated (Flood 2002). Its poles are rejectionist vs. maximalist, with revisionist, minimalist, gradualist and reformist positions situated in between. Though the above classifications have focused primarily on party ‑based Euroscepticism, Eurosceptic views can also be analysed from a public opinion perspective. Sorensen (2008) identifies four broad ideal types of public Euro‑ scepticism. According to her analyses, Euroscepticism can have an economic character or be sovereignty ‑based (reflecting the claim that EU cooperation should not challenge national sovereignty). The third type is labelled “demo‑ cratic Euroscepticism” and has to do with the democratic deficit associated with EU ‑level governance. Finally, the fourth type is more political and evaluates the EU according to broadly the same cleavages that characterise national politics (Sorensen 2008: 8).
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